Veronica and Ronnie sat at the dining room table in their bathrobes. "We gave each other a week," Von said. "What do we have to show for it?"
"Pat bought a ring today," Ronnie said. Von tilted her head in interest. "He went off and did it himself when we were out, but he didn't hide it. He said he had some money that he'd kept with his personal effects, and he wanted to buy a gift for Jeanette. Then he showed it to me. It is just an opal."
"You fuckin idiot," Von said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Opals are big nowadays. It's `the unique engagement ring'. And not having to buy from either warlords or a South African cartel probably makes a good selling point. Then there's another fun fact, it's the October birthstone. Who do we know born in Octiober?"
"Nikki..." Ronnie put his face in his hands. "That's circumstantial, though. Three out of the five years they were married, Pat forgot her birthday. Besides which, it's not really Nikki's kind of ring. It's called a black opal, mostly deep blue, but there's this red center that really looks like fire. The first thing I thought, and I know you're thinking it too: `This is for Tiffany... '" There was a pause. "You don't think...?"
"What do you think?" Von said. "So I suppose that's it for the Pat front."
She gave him a silent look, and he sighed. "I talked to him about the game. He gave me this." He pushed a letter into her hands.
"Dear Pat," Von read, "`I appreciate Tiffany acting as my liaison... Please remember she is taking significant risks, as am I... I respect your desire to pursue reconciliation, and especially your willingness to accept it as a possibility to explore rather than a foregone conclusion. I would be happy to come to your dance competition, though I can make no promises, and even if I come, you should not expect to see me. I believe that watching how you and Tiffany perform together could tell me much that I want to know in deciding our future, but I do not wish to be a distraction to you or to Tiffany…'"
Von laughed. "`I can tell that Tiffany cares for you deeply, and would like to be far more than the good friend she is to you… I admire your desire to sustain a friendship with her, even if we reconcile. But I must say up front, I could not accept such an arrangement if we renewed our vows, nor would I accept it in her place. We have both been too close to you, even intimate, to share you. At some point, you are going to have to choose one of us and let the other go free.' Yeah, that's our drama queen. Oh, here's the kicker: `If we are unable to meet at the dance, please come to the park where you proposed. I promise that I will give you my answers there, if not in person then through our liaison.'"
Von smiled. "Much better. You should lead with your strongest exhibit, Ronnie. Here's what I got." She pushed a dozen photocopied pages across the table. It was hand-written notes, riddled with corrections, annotations, insertions and wholesale crossing-out. Ronnie's drowsy eyes widened. "I went in my parents' annex while Tiff was with Jeanette. I was awarded a key by the court, if you remember. I had to do a lot of looking, and Tiffany's going to know I was there. But I found the originals for these. My guess is it's a draft of a letter she plans to deliver at the park."
"It's all here," Ronnie said. "This is her full confession. She admits making the offer to be his liaison with no intention of contacting Nikki, reading the full contents of his letters to her, and forging letters in Nikki's name. She even quotes samples of letters to prove it."
"It gets better," Von said, taking the other pages back. "She goes on to say that she wanted a physical relationship with him as soon as they met, and that it was her intention to `do it with the lights out so I could pretend you were Tommy'. Mm, she says quite a bit more, you don't need to see that. Then she finishes by saying that, by getting to know him as a friend, she has been able to develop a much deeper appreciation for him. She says she is in love with him, and begs him to try to love her instead of continuing to endanger his freedom with his impossible quest to reunite with Nikki."
"You know what he told me when I convinced him to show me the letter?" Ronnie said. "He said he wrote it and all the others himself, without even talking to Tiffany. He said, I quote, `I just forgot it wasn't real.' He's ready to say he had a delusional episode. He'll be sent back, and he knows it, and he'll do it, just to make sure Tiffany and Nikki don't get in trouble."
He sighed. "We have to destroy these," he said. "If anyone sees this, Pat's going away, and the only way Tiffany doesn't go to jail is if she loses another competency hearing. And that would be the real crime, because all that this really proves is that they actually found a way to work through their troubles. I am destroying these, right now." He walked briskly to the office, and the shredder buzzed. Nikki smiled. "I'm erasing them from the computer, too!" She glanced to her purse, where she kept a tablet computer and really did like to think her husband's manhood was stowed for safekeeping.
She got up and met him with a kiss as he emerged from the office. "There's one more thing I wanted to talk to you about," she said. "I know what you're doing in the garage. I want you to know, if that's anything like a fetish you have going... I can keep an open mind."
He pushed her to arm's length. "What are you going to do?" he said, knowing the answer.
"We are going to do what has to be done," Von said. She took him by the hand, and lead him toward the bedroom. "We still don't really understand what's going on with Pat, but I know Tiffany. She's controlling your friend with a fantasy, and it has to stop. If we give him something real, it short circuits, and she learns a lesson."
Ronnie halted in his tracks at the bedroom door. "Von," he said, "we need to talk. People can be wrong, Veronica. Tiffany was wrong. She admitted it in that letter. She was wrong about what Pat wanted, she was wrong about what kind of guy he was, and in the end, she was wrong about what she really wanted. We could be wrong about them, too! I still don't think the two of them together is a good idea, but I'm giving it an open mind, and you should too!"
She gave him a gaze that was utterly cold. "But that's what this is really about, isn't it? I told you I'm sorry! I'm sorry that I let us get to a place where you thought you had to worry! But nothing happened. Nothing was ever going to happen!"
"Then there's nothing to talk about," Von said. Then she shed her robe, and there was no more talking after that.
